Afon Cain

[dbl]

Warrington has a short stretch of this stream just above where it joins the Vrynwy at Llansantffraid, and I occasionally visit it as it is close to my house. It is narrow and fast-flowing but has quite a few small pools on the bends, although much clogged with debris and a lot of low bankside trees on the runs.

I have caught one(!) trout here before but typical is the conversation I had yesterday with a farmer on the bank.
"Have you caught anything?"
"Not yet."
"Thought not. There used to be a lot of fish here when I was a boy, but..." (etc)

So I was surprised and pleased when my sakasa kebari, complete with red silk eye, enticed a small (6") but eager WBT in a back eddy on a bend. As I was sidecasting under some very low branches to reach the spot I thought likely, I was even rather proud! Long rod,short line I had remembered and used my 12' Iwana with a level line only about 6' long with a 3' tippet. First of the season and not on a weighted nymph! I even managed not to lose the fly in the vegetation and snags.

[orangeotter]

well done Dave, sounds very interesting. I know of the Cain near Llanfyllyn and hope to fish it this year.

[dbl]

Thanks Louis, I hope your outing higher up is also fruitful! Are you on the Passport scheme water? That looks interesting, though perhaps different in character. The river looks wider up there actually, from the photos on the site. It is quite a narrow channel in the lower part.
A local fisherman told me last year that the stretch just above the mouth of the stream used to be a popular spot for catching pike, which were numerous though small. I haven't been that far down yet, but I have so far been alone on the area near the A495 bridge. Prince Albert lease a lake stocked with pike less than a mile away.
I found a recent WTT report on the upper reaches of the Cain here:
www.wildtrout.org/av/afon-cain-powys

[flatsghost]

Well done Dave. It makes me happy to hear you say how much enjoyment you can find in the little stream and the trout. It is not all about whoppers for sure.
Little gems tucked away in forgotten places and there are a number of these on the Borders I am sure.
Glyn

[dbl]

I returned to the Cain yesterday afternoon. It is now fairly low, but still carries a slight milky colour, perhaps from fine clay? Along with the now prolific bank vegetation, there now appeared everywhere equally abundant hatches of flies. The largest winged I could not identify, but the wing was large and upright and translucent white. I spotted at least one sedge fly and these, which I believe to be Blue-Winged Olives:


Rises, however, were few and normally a splash under heavy cover. Where an accessible, though small, fish rose, it responded to the sakasa kebari I was using. I had hopes of better at the bend where I had caught before so I went there and after flicking around with the small ESO rod, heard a good rise just above the bend. When I saw its location, my heart sank for it was right beside a heap of trash:


yes, just behind the white twig in the centre! There was also dense cover on all sides, so a flick of some kind was the only option. After several fumbled attempts I landed the fly in about the right place. The fish struck, as did I and immediately found the hook firmly attached to an underwater obstruction. I assumed the fish would go down having been pricked, but, as I tied on a new fly and prepared to move on, it rose again. This time, I managed to keep the fish up and it turned out to be a large fish for this tiny stream, at about 11". It was in good shape as well. I returned it to rise again.


I think it is likely to be wild as no stocking takes place around here.
The kebari was a simple one:


Green, but this was before I came across the rusty coloured swarms!

[orangeotter]

excellent Dave, and what a pretty silvery fish - is that typical of the Cain. You did well and I look forward to fishing it myself.

[dbl]

Thanks Louis! I'm not sure how typical it is. The small ones I have caught didn't strike me as distinctive, but I was struck by the colour of that fish as soon as I saw it on the bank. Looking at identification drawings, I'm beginning to wonder if it is a salmon smolt, perhaps a female, as it seems the male is darker at the head:

Female head:


It would be interesting if it was, as it would suggest it was moving downstream to migrate, so would have started life in the upper reaches of the Cain. 


(Picture source:http://www.fordhead.co.uk/fish.htm)

[orangeotter]

Dave: this is too big for a smolt. In addition, the extreme end of the maxillary bone of a salmon will reach to the hindmost edge of the eye - on a trout it will extend beyond this, as does yours. Not out of the question that it's a sewin. Have you caught similarly coloured trout.I'm planning a day on the Severn Passport beat so hopefully I can bag one to compare.

[dbl]

I took a leaf out of orangeotter's book last evening, and went to explore an unvisited section of the Warrington waters on this river. Not a pretty sight! The uppermost end of the beat (just north of the B4393) is basically a gully, with an average 5' drop and an almost continuous edge of thick tree and bush. A long stand of Japanese knotweed is rampant at one point. The reason for the colour in the stream is evident as the channel, with many almost rectangular meanders, cuts through soft earth and clay, and is surprisingly fast-flowing. There are few features, though many temporary pools formed by rafts of debris.
Even here a good hatch of fly was evident, though less profuse than lower down below the main road. From a bend ending in a natural beaver dam of trash I pulled one small trout that was rising, but the effort seemed hardly worth it. Someone intrepid and dedicated (and careless of their breathables) could wade through this section, but you would find few places to escape up the bank!
The situation slightly improves south of the B road. The places to target are the bends, where erosion on one side and deposition on the other creates opportunities to approach the stream and features that attract trout. Not all the bends are accessible from the southern (Warrington) bank, but I finally happened on a corner where the river, piling into the opposite bank had deposited a slight beach on my side and cut two deep pools to the edge of the main current on the opposite side. A couple of fish were rising, but the first of these was also small. A larger fish seemed to be busy in the upper pool so I laid my SK into that. I changed flies 3 times before the fish responded, but the small rod immediately pulled round in a sharp arc and the line sang as it whipped about across the pool.
The ESO zoom is a bit deceptive, though fun, as the fish that shortly appeared was not a monster, but a 9" trout. Unfortunately, it would not sit still for a picture and I have several blurs to prove this, before I reluctantly returned it. However, the colour was very similar to the other fish mentioned above.
So, Louis, both these fish, very similar in size and well conditioned, and caught about a mile apart, were of a similar silvery hue! Best of luck with the higher up Passport beat! (And thanks for the I.D. tip on smolt).

[orangeotter]

Interesting Dave, I'm fishing the passport water next Thursday - really curious.